This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of the art that may be related to various aspects of the present invention. The following discussion is intended to provide information to facilitate a better understanding of the present invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that statements in the following discussion are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Typically, in the alarm industry, either a detection device has to be hard hardwired to an alarm CPU or connected to it via a small range wireless device because the detection device needs to be in close proximity to a reporting device. The typical alarm system supervised wireless device can only transmit about 1000 feet max in ideal conditions. When used indoors, the wireless range is substantially less due to having to pass the weak signal through various types of construction material. Many older buildings have metal lath walls and/or asbestos in their return air areas making running wires uneconomical and causing typical short range wireless transmitters to have a very limited range.
The system is able to overcome the small range problem as well as the problem of having a typical cell phone type of wireless device use up its standby battery life which usually is only a few days at most.